“Do you wish to divorce this man?” the judge asked Aliya.

She glanced at her husband, Ahmad, sitting on the other side of the room and wiping tears from his eyes.

Aliya nodded to the judge.

“Regarding this divorce: Why do you wish it?” the judge asked.

Aliyah looked down, thinking back to when her husband started to change—when he stopped flying into fits of rage at her and the children. What had turned Ahmad into another man? she wondered. It had all started when he began reading the about Jesus and spending time one of His followers.

There was no way she could stay with her husband after he had turned his back on a thousand years of Islamic faith and tradition. She had to tell the judge that Ahmad had betrayed Islam.

Her words held the power to send her husband out of her life completely—or even into prison. But she hadn’t thought of that until this moment.

Suddenly she couldn’t answer the judge. She shrugged, and the judge dismissed her, refusing to grant the divorce.

Climbing into a taxi without her divorce papers, Aliyah wondering if she still loved Ahmad, who stood without protest at his own divorce trial. Why had she changed her mind? Maybe the problem wasn’t about her husband at all, Aliyah thought. Maybe the divorce was about her own fears of finally leaving Islam.

It had started years back when she began experiencing terrifying spells of darkness. All of a sudden, she would start feeling like a presence was tying her down so she couldn’t speak or move. Like a good Muslim, Aliyah tried fasting and praying in the name of Islam to stop the episodes.

But the more she fasted and the more she prayed, the attacks seemed to get worse. So she stopped fasting and praying, and the dark spells ceased.

But now Aliyah was tormented by a new fear—that she was betraying Islam by letting go of these two central tenets of her faith.

Not long after that court date, Ahmad suggested they take the family on a vacation. He took time off from his corporate job, and they went to a nearby country. While there, they discovered a church full of people praying in Arabic. Aliyah listened and was deeply moved by the way they prayed for the world and for her people.

After that, Aliyah told Ahmad that she was no longer afraid of his books about Jesus.

They returned home, and Ahmad introduced Aliyah to Megan, the wife of the Frontiers worker who had introduced Ahmad to Jesus in the Word.

Aliyah began bringing her children over to play with Megan’s kids while the two women studied God’s Word together. The kids often interrupted them, and Aliyah sometimes struggled to make sense of everything they studied. But the Scriptures were stirring her heart for God. She was hungry to learn more.

One evening, Ahmad invited his friend Yacoub over. Yacoub had given his life to Christ many years before. And as Aliyah listened to him talk about Jesus, things began to make sense. She realized that Jesus is the reason her husband had changed so much. The Bible passages she had studied with Megan all came into focus.

Aliyah prayed and yielded her life to Jesus, and the threatening cloud over her marriage blew away. She and Ahmad began reading God’s Word together, and they committed to raising their children to love Christ.

• Aliyah and Ahmad are the only known family of believers in their city. Ask God to use them to draw more Muslim families into the Kingdom.
• Ask God to strengthen their marriage and help them stand together in power and faith.
• Pray that husbands and wives across the Muslim world will discover Jesus Christ together and grow in knowledge of the Word.
• Ask God to train and send new workers like Megan and her husband to bring the Gospel to Muslim families.

**This account comes from a long-term worker. Names and places have been changed for security.**

Original article: https://frontiersusa.org/blog/betrayal-or-the-true-path/

Main photo by Fabian Kron